Sompo Holdings Corporation has announced a new partnership with pan-African digital payment platform BTC Africa (BitPesa), a move that will extend Sompo’s presence in the global remittance services market, with a view to potentially using BitPesa’s technology within the insurance sector.
BitPesa is an African bitcoin start-up firm that was established in 2013. It operates an international remittance business with the use of virtual currency, and is currently operational in Kenya, the Republic of Congo, ten other African countries, Japan, and the UK.
According to Cointelegraph, and as confirmed by the publication’s Japanese arm, Sompo invested $5 million in BitPesa to acquire a 10% stake on November 8th, 2018.
In a press release on the agreement, Sompo said that the new partnership is about the “digitisation of global remittance services”, and underlined that BitPesa gains global credibility by joining Sompo Holdings.
Utilising the bitcoin start-ups technology, Sompo said it will extend its “presence in the international remittance service market and consider the application of this technology to the insurance field.”
The use of new and advanced technology in the global insurance and reinsurance sector is becoming increasingly common as firms look to improve efficiency and lower costs, so it will be interesting to see if Sompo looks to leverage this type of tech in the insurance industry in the future, and what impacts it might have.
